Thursday's stats:
Low temp: 53.6F (12.0C)
High temp: 68.2F (20.1C)
Rainfall: none
Much like this morning at sunrise, there are just a few small patches of high cirrus clouds around the area this evening at sunset. Today has turned out to be the sunniest day in about three weeks, with the high temperature only about one degree (F) below the warmest of 2014 thus far. In conjunction with the sunshine and light winds, this has definitely been a contender for the most pleasant day overall since way back in the middle of October.
A very benign west-northwest flow in the upper-atmosphere, along with an air mass devoid of much in the way of latent moisture is responsible for the great weather of the past three days. Today it even warmed up enough in the upper-levels to prevent the instability necessary to stir up more than just a few cumulus clouds over the mountains. Tomorrow is looking good as well, though we have to be on guard for a bit more high cloudiness, and perhaps some returning mountain instability by late in the day. If our sunshine doesn't get hijacked, I'm thinking it could hit 70F (21.1C) at my location in the upper part of town for the first time this year. If you've been carefully following this blog, you know that event is way overdue, and something we've been waiting for for a long time.
There should be a turn to a more unstable and active pattern over the weekend, as a disorganized area of disturbances begins to drop in from the west-northwest. The keys will be some pockets of colder air aloft and an increase in the moisture content of our air mass -- leading to the development of some widely scattered showers and thundershowers between late Saturday afternoon and Monday. My impression is that this system isn't going to be much of a big deal for us, but it can't be ignored. Stay tuned.
CURRENT FORECAST info is available on the tab above.
